Review: JVC Everio GZ-HM300 camcorder

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

If you have to shoot a lot of video, and quality matters, you really can’t beat a camcorder. Today’s point-and-shoot cameras take good enough video and some DSLRs can take great video, but a camcorder is still the best way to get high quality, maximum versatility, and excellent ease-of-use. JVC’s Everio GZ-HM300 is a compact consumer camcorder that shoots at Full HD and sells for $399. It has no internal storage, but does have two SDHC slots.

You can find the full specifications here. Some details you might want to know are:

Storage: Two SD/SDHC slots

Sensor: 1/5.8″ 1.37MP CMOS

Full HD 1920×1080 recording: Yes

Digital stills: up to 1920×1080

1080p/60P output: Yes

Optical zoom: 20x

Bluetooth: No

Time-lapse recording: Yes

One-touch uploads to YouTube: Yes

Remote control: No

Dimensions: 2.1 x 2.5 x 4.6 inches ; 52x62x115mm

Weight: 0.57 lb / 255g

Right out of the box let’s get one thing clear–this is not a 1080p camcorder. It records at “Full HD” which means 1920×1080, but the video is interlaced, making this a 1080i camcorder. JVC’s site says that the camcorder can do 1080p/60P output but that is using HDMI with the 1080i recorded video. JVC is extremely unclear with this information on their product page and people are going to be confused. This is also the case for the GZ-HM320 (same camcorder but with 8GB internal storage) and the GZ-HM340 (16GB).

The use of interlaced video is going to affect image quality, especially during fast motion, and might be noticeable when the video is played back on larger televisions and computer monitors. The 1080i/1080p issue won’t be noticed by many casual consumers, but it’s worth getting the facts straight.

As for the hardware itself, JVC did a nice job with the HM300. The camcorder is small and lightweight with easily accessible controls. There are enough buttons to get the job done but the camcorder remains easy to just pickup and use regardless of your skill level. The on-screen menus are handled with JVC’s “laser touch” which is based a touch-sensitive area to the left of the screen where you can scroll up/down or point to a spot and then pick the corresponding row in the menu. It’s as easy as using the touch controls on an iPod and works well with JVC’s simplified menu system (once you get the hang of it). The buttons on the camcorder are a bit small, but no so much to be a problem. The build is mostly plastic, but it’s on par with most consumer video devices.

PIC_0001

jvc_gz-hm300_04

jvc_gz-hm300_03

jvc_gz-hm300_02

jvc_gz-hm300_01

There are some minor annoyances with the design–the handstrap is thin and flimsy and there is a removable lens cover, not a built-in automatic one. Neither of these are particularly bad, so overall the HM300 is pretty nice, with its best feature being its size. The LCD display is a little bit over 2.5-inches on the diagonal but it feels like it’ a rather low resolution so accurately gauging the quality of your videos a can be a challenge. There is HDMI, component, and AV output available.

Speaking of features, the HM300 has the basics but it is definitely a consumer camcorder. There are limited manual controls and no microphone or headphone jacks. People probably won’t be expecting enthusiasts features at $399 though. Also, the sensor used on the new HM3x0 models is smaller than that used on the older HM200, which is a step in the wrong direction and could lead to some quality issues (though JVC hopefully was able to compensate for this).

Video recording on the HM300 is an interesting thing. If you are a general consumer looking for some 1920×1080 video of a vacation or birthday party the HM300 largely does quite well. It’s reliable and the videos tend to turn out OK. The autofocus isn’t very fast and low light performance is lackluster, but it’s a versatile and consistent camcorder with consumer-friendly features like one-touch YouTube uploads and face priority AE/AF.

More demanding buyers are going to have some bones to pick with JVC. Obviously there is the issue of 1080i which delivers 1920×1080 interlaced video. This is something people should know about when buying the product. After that the effects of it can be felt during moments of quick motion as well in overall video quality. There are four video quality modes (UXP, XP, SP, and EP) but no option to shoot in standard definition (SD). These settings will generally be used to restrict file sizes, and while the difference between UXP (what JVC calls “maximum quality for Blu-ray disc”) isn’t hugely different from XP (high quality), but SP and EP are a noticeable step down. File sizes will be halved when from UXP to SP. Don’t forget 1080i at 60 FPS is your only shooting option, so if you need something else then this is not the camcorder for you.

The 1080/60i video taken by the GZ-HM300 is of good quality. It’s not amazing, but under the right conditions (with little movement and lots of light) things looks rather nice. As the light conditions worsen the camera cannot compensate very well and quality drops as noise increases. You can see the movement test below (in up to 720p) in order to get a better understanding of what to expect. A stabilization test was posted as well.

The HM300 does make excellent use of it’s two memory card slots. It has seamless recording between the two slots and users can select which slot they’d like their content to go on–video and photos can independently be configured to go into slot A or B.

Still images can only be shot at up to 1920×1080 (as well as 1440×1080 or 640×480). Image quality can be at either fine or standard settings. The maximum resolution of just 1920×1080 and significant noise (see the image above) means that the still image capibilities of the HM300 are really only meant for use when you have no other option. The best part about taking photographs with the HM300 is that it has a dedicated camera button so you can take images while shooting a video as well as without having to move the camcorder into it’s dedicated camera mode. This mode is used for making adjustments to you camera settings.

JVC’s GZ-HM300 is a conflicting product. In many ways, on paper, it’s just not a great product. The settings are limited, it shoots at 1080i, the photographs only shoot at 1920×1080, there is no on-board storage, and so on. But when I just picked up the camcorder and used it, most of these were forgotten. The camera is extremely easy to use and even settings that can be confusing, like time-lapse recording, are simple to approach. The video quality has its issues, but as you can see from the sample video above (converted to 720p) it’s actually more than OK once you do something with it. At 1920×1080 on your computer it won’t be the best looking video, but with some scaling and deinterlacing its quite usable. This is, after all, a consumer camcorder, not a professional or enthusiast level device and if that’s kept in mind people will probably be pretty happy with its results. For the money it’s probably not the product I would recommend, but it’s a choice more than a few people will be happy with, especially once the price drops a bit.

Speak Your Mind

teresa

hi, thanks for the review, its very useful, i’m trying to get the best quality camcorder I can for abour U$S 400…
now, why do you say “For the money it’s probably not the product I would recommend”? I mean, are there better cams for this same price? I couldn’t find them…

also, do you know if it’s possible to add a lens to this cam? like a wide angle lens… does it have a ring where the lens can be added?

thanks very much!
teresa

Leo

I bougth this camcorder for ‘general’ filming, but also for my model railroad. It’s in On30 scale and the flatcars are large enough for the cam to sit on.

Only snag is I have to leave the display/viewer open to record, is it possible to record with a closed display ?

Mea maxima culpa, I found out about the remote control versions after buying this one :-((

cheers, Leo.

Nicky

great review

Arksoft

Not very good when shooting sports video (e.g. basketball, soccer). Picture quality is quite poor when shooting quick motion.

Hey quick question. Just wondering about autofocus while shooting. If for example I am infront on the camera and it is focused on me; if I were to hold up something close to the lens will it adjust to that? (Sorry, complete laymans terms!!)